Dr. Li Wenliang, the whistleblower of the Wuhan outbreak, was suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party authorities during his lifetime, but was posthumously declared a martyr after his death.
Li Wenliang, a physician at China’s Wuhan Central Hospital, was alerted to the outbreak of the Chinese Communist Party virus (Wuhan pneumonia) through a communications software group on December 30 last year. On the one-year anniversary of his death, the White House National Security Council tweeted a tribute to him, along with a speech by Deputy White House National Security Advisor Bo Ming on the anniversary of the May Fourth Movement, in which he praised Li as an heir to the May Fourth spirit.
Li Wenliang was admonished by the Chinese Communist Party authorities for raising the alarm about the epidemic last year, and on Jan. 12, he showed symptoms of the Communist virus, was diagnosed on Feb. 1, and died on Feb. 6.
Li Wenliang’s death caused strong repercussions in China and abroad, and was seen as a victim of the Beijing authorities’ suppression of freedom of expression and concealment of the epidemic. He was later posthumously honored as a martyr by Chinese Communist Party officials in response to international public opinion.
The Central News Agency reported that the White House National Security Council, on the 1-year anniversary of Li Wenliang’s Wuhan pneumonia alert, paid tribute to him through an official tweet, saying that 1 year ago today, Dr. Li Wenliang alerted his colleagues on social media about an unknown pneumonia outbreak in the Wuhan area. The Chinese Communist authorities censored him and forced him to confess to spreading rumors and disrupting social order.
Li Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a hospital in Wuhan, died on Feb. 6, 2020, at the age of 34 after contracting Wuhan novel coronavirus pneumonia. (Web Photo)
The tweet noted that Dr. Li died weeks later after contracting Wuhan pneumonia, and that “if his warnings had been heard, countless deaths could have been prevented.”
Citing Matt Pottinger’s Chinese speech in May discussing the impact of the May Fourth Movement, the tweet said that the May Fourth heirs are civic-minded Chinese citizens, as demonstrated by their courageous acts, large and small. Dr. Li Wenliang is one such person.
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